Book Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

8:24:00 PM

Genre: YA, fantasy

Published: August 7th, 2012 by Bloomsbury USA Children's

Rating: ★★★★4/5 stars

Synopsis (from Goodreads): When magic has gone from the world, and a vicious king rules from his throne of glass, an assassin comes to the castle. She does not come to kill, but to win her freedom. If she can defeat twenty-three killers, thieves, and warriors in a competition to find the greatest assassin in the land, she will become the King's Champion and be released from prison.

Her name is Celaena Sardothien.

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her.

And a princess from a foreign land will become the one thing Celaena never thought she'd have again: a friend.

But something evil dwells in the castle—and it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying, horribly, one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival—and a desperate quest to root out the source of the evil before it destroys her world.

I have known about this series for
a few years now, and it’s been on my TBR list for forever and a day. I simply
finally got around to reading it at the end of August, and now I don’t know why
I waited so long. As soon as I picked up this book, I knew I was hooked. Sarah
J. Maas wastes no time in establishing characters and jumping straight into the
story. Right off the bat, I knew Celaena Sardothien was going to be a force to
be reckoned with, headstrong and self-assured in everything she does. The assassin,
once the most feared trained killer in her land and known by the moniker of
Adarlan’s Assassin, has been captured and imprisoned in a slave encampment for
almost a year when she is sought out to become the prince’s champion to compete
for her freedom. The story kicks off with Celaena being led through a maze of
corridors (in an effort to confuse her in the case she attempts to escape) by
captain of the royal guard, Chaol Westfall. We as the audience immediately
learn that Celaena has a broad range of physical abilities and is incredibly
sharp and quick-witted, and is unapologetic for who she is. Chaol meanwhile may
be gruff and have a thick skin, though this hard exterior has an intuitive,
caring interior. The third main character is the Crown Prince of Adarlan,
Dorian Havilliard. He is arrogant and handsome, but desires something more than
his royal title. The King had decided to hold a contest to see who will win the
title of his personal champion. Dorian seeks out Celaena in the hopes of
gaining his father, the King’s approval.

This book appealed to me mainly
because it wasn’t your cookie-cutter fantasy story involving princesses and
princes, fairies and other magical folk, and a curse of some sort falling over
the land. I had never before heard of a YA novel whose main character was a
teenage assassin who lived in a land where magic was banned – that to me was
simply turning the YA heroine schema on its head. I would describe this book to
other fantasy fans as the fifth game from the Elder Scrolls series, Skyrim,
meets Game of Thrones, with a dash of Tolkien. It doesn’t go overboard in its
lore and mythology, so it remains believable while not becoming
overcomplicated. The action and tension is reminiscent of Game of Thrones, each
fight scene or task in the competition crafted like a well-choreographed dance,
translated into writing. Celaena is a very well-defined character who has
weaknesses that equal her strengths, and becomes a very relatable character –
well, you know, aside from the whole occupational thing where she kills people
for hire... She was orphaned at a young age and in turn raised and trained by a
master assassin, and can be narcissistic and downright spiteful. But the
duality of her character lends to a side of her that loves fine clothes, parties,
food, and a good book.

Sarah J. Maas has a very particular
voice to her writing, one that is easily distinguishable and fits the narrative
perfectly. The story is told in third-person omniscient point of view (thank
you, middle school literature class) divided among the three main characters.
We mainly get to follow Celaena and take a peek inside her brain, but every so
often Chaol and Dorian’s third person point of view will come into play. This
was very easy to follow, and I actually preferred it to first person in this
instance.

A secondary character I
unexpectedly grew to love was Nehemia. The princess of a neighboring country,
she and Celaena become fast friends and her kind but regal nature and natural
elegance, as well as her intelligence and slight air of mystery made me feel
like I could easily be her friend, too. She quickly became one of my favorite
characters in the book.

As far as the romance plot goes,
this book is described as Celaena having two men love her. In all honesty, I
did not catch that vibe at all, though I knew who the second man was supposed
to be. Without revealing who the two men are (though it can be quite obvious
once you start reading the novel), I will say that I was not satisfied with one
of them. I did not think the two were a good fit for one another, and their
romance did not really further the plot for me. I don’t mind having a strong
female lead who has a romantic interest, I just felt like it became the focus
more often than not when I expected the focus to be more so on Celaena’s trials
in the competition and her backstory. But in the end, the competition did take
precedence and I found myself growing indifferent toward the man in question.

All in all, this book received 4
out of 5 stars for me because it was a gripping story chock-full of action and
intrigue, with a compelling and unique cast of characters. However, there were
moments from time to time where the story seemed to lag and lose its pacing. As
a huge fan of the fantasy genre, from movies to books to video games, I loved
this book. I feel like it did its genre justice and then some. I can’t wait to
continue the series and see what comes next for Adarlan’s Assassin!

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Giselle is an Editing, Writing, and Media major at Florida State University - which is a fancy way of saying she is studying to become a publisher. Also an avid horror movie enthusiast, crazy cat lady, java junkie, makeup fanatic, picture taker, candlestick maker, and Wilderness Explorer, she blogs about books and does freelance graphic design.

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Welcome to A Book and a Cup of Coffee! My name is Giselle, I also go by Gee, and this is a blog centered around book reviews, playlists, discussions, & other fun bookish things. Grab a cup and cozy up with a good book!